1963 Bentley S3 Continental

The Bentley Continental name originated with an H.J. Mulliner 2-door fastback coupe, built on a 1952 Bentley R-Type chassis as a high-speed touring car. It achieved a cult following, and when the Bentley S series was launched in 1955, along with the new Silver Cloud, the Continental specification continued with a select few cars.

The 4-door Continental Flying Spur was first available on the 1957 Bentley S1 and was a collaborative effort between Rolls-Royce in-house styling and H.J. Mulliner. The Bentley S2 Continental followed in 1959, featuring the new 6230cc aluminium V-8 and a large variety of closed 2- and 4-door coachbuilt bodies from Mulliner and James Young.

But Norwegian designer Vilhelm Koren's dramatic Park Ward 'Korenental' drophead coupe was the connoisseur's choice, with straight-through wingline and redesigned interior with the instruments in front of the driver. Koren had been discovered at the 1959 Turin show, where his Alfa Romeo concept was admired by Rolls-Royce executives, and their gamble paid off handsomely. Koren's drophead also used much more steel than Park Ward had used previously.

When the S3 Continental was launched in 1962, the four horizontal headlights on the S3 saloon would not adapt to the slab-sided Park Ward drophead coupe and 2-door saloon, and an Alvis-style vertical stack was dismissed. Instead, four controversial angled headlights were installed, and quickly accepted as iconic. James Young still offered a coachbuilt saloon and Mulliner the 4-door Flying Spur, but Mulliner and Park Ward merged in 1961 and both names appeared jointly on their designs after 1963.

The Bentley S3 Continental benefitted from a higher 9:1 compression ratio and larger 2-inch SU carburettors on the alloy V-8 engine, which boosted it to 210hp, resulting in a top speed of 120mph. The S3 also introduced flashing indicators and side lamps, combined in a single unit in the James Young and Mulliner designs, and new smaller bumpers were fitted to domestic models. Later MPW drophead coupes and 2-door saloons can be recognized by a full-length chrome strip along the side, following a customer's request, and also mouldings over the wheel arches.

In all 312 Bentley Continental S3s were built and a number of them were badged as Rolls-Royces, with a correspondingly higher price. The S3 was the last Rolls-Royce or Bentley built with a separate chassis and the Continental name would disappear in 1966, not to be revived until 1984. Enthusiasts are divided over the merits of the designs S3, though mechanically they are superior to the S2 whose V-8 suffered teething troubles.

As always 100 percent provenance is essential when contemplating the purchase of any S3 and potential buyers of all S3s, particularly the Korem designed MPW Continentals would do well to remember that the bodies are largely steel, and rust can be a serious issue. In addition, unscrupulous restorers have converted a number of Korem 2-door saloons into drophead coupes, though thorough record checking will undoubtedly expose these examples as fakes.